Tag Archives: writing

Every once in a while I trip over something that begs sharing. This is one golden nugget I had to squeeze in.

My favourite series of all time is Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. The 8th installment in the series is due out this month, and the first book, Outlander, is to debut on the American network, Starz, this August. I won’t even start on the details of the story – I couldn’t do it justice – but I do have to share this little snippet posted today on Diana’s Facebook page. For any romance writer, this advice is priceless. I know this, because she nails it. Every time. Enjoy!

THE QUICK-START FIVE-MINUTE GUIDE TO WRITING SEX-SCENES(for those in a hurry)

Where most beginning writers screw up (you should pardon the expression) is in thinking that sex scenes are about sex. A good sex scene is about the exchange of emotions, not bodily fluids. That being so, it can encompass any emotion whatever, from rage or desolation to exultation, tenderness, or surprise.

Lust is not an emotion; it’s a one-dimensional hormonal response. Ergo, while you can mention lust in a sex-scene, describing it at any great length is like going on about the pattern of the wall-paper in the bedroom. Worth a quick glance, maybe, but essentially boring.

So how do you show the exchange of emotions? Dialogue, expression, or action—that’s about the extent of your choices, and of those, dialogue is by far the most flexible and powerful tool a writer has. What people say reveals the essence of their characters.

Example:

“I know once is enough to make it legal, but…” He paused shyly.

“You want to do it again?”

“Would ye mind verra much?”

I didn’t laugh this time, either, but I felt my ribs creak under the strain.

“No,” I said gravely. “I wouldn’t mind.”

Now, you do, of course, want to make the scene vivid and three-dimensional. You have an important advantage when dealing with sex, insofar as you can reasonably expect that most of your audience knows how it’s done. Ergo, you can rely on this commonality of experience, and don’t need more than brief references to create a mental picture.

You want to anchor the scene with physical details, but by and large, it’s better to use sensual details, rather than overtly sexual ones. (Just read any scene that involves a man licking a woman’s nipples and you’ll see what I mean. Either the writer goes into ghastly contortions to avoid using the word “nipples”—“tender pink crests” comes vividly to mind—or does it in blunt and hideous detail, so that you can all but hear the slurping. This is Distracting. Don’t Do That.)

So how _do_ you make a scene vivid, but not revoltingly so? There’s a little trick called the Rule of Three: if you use any three of the five senses, it will make the scene immediately three-dimensional. (Many people use only sight and sound. Include smell, taste, touch, and you’re in business.)

Example:

The road was narrow, and they jostled against one another now and then, blinded between the dark wood and the brilliance of the rising moon. He could hear Jamie’s breath, or thought he could—it seemed part of the soft wind that touched his face. He could smell Jamie, smell the musk of his body, the dried sweat and dust in his clothes, and felt suddenly wolf-like and feral, longing changed to outright hunger.

He wanted.

In essence, a good sex scene is usually a dialogue scene with physical details.

Example:

“I’ll gie it to ye,” he murmured, and his hand moved lightly. A touch. Another. “But ye’ll take it from me tenderly, a nighean donn.”

“I don’t want tenderness, damn you!”

“I ken that well enough,” he said, with a hint of grimness. “But it’s what ye’ll have, like it or not.”

He laid me down on his kilt, and came back into me, strongly enough that I gave a small, high-pitched cry of relief.

“Ask me to your bed,” he said. “I shall come to ye. For that matter–I shall come, whether ye ask it or no. But I am your man; I serve ye as I will.”

And finally, you can use metaphor and lyricism to address the emotional atmosphere of an encounter directly. This is kind of advanced stuff, though.

Example:

He’d meant to be gentle. Very gentle. Had planned it with care, worrying each step of the long way home. She was broken; he must go canny, take his time. Be careful in gluing back her shattered bits.

And then he came to her and discovered that she wished no part of gentleness, of courting. She wished directness. Brevity and violence. If she was broken, she would slash him with her jagged edges, reckless as a drunkard with a shattered bottle.

She raked his back; he felt the scrape of broken nails, and thought dimly that was good–she’d fought. That was the last of his thought; his own fury took him then, rage and a lust that came on him like black thunder on a mountain, a cloud that hid all from him and him from all, so that kind familiarity was lost and he was alone, strange in darkness.

Romantic Shorts is an idea that’s floated around my head/office/garbage can/notebook/purse/soul for almost twenty years. But now that it’s ‘out there,’ I am suffering from the most conflicting of feelings.

At times, I am overwhelmed with a sense of euphoric excitement akin to the I’M-GETTIN’-A-PUPPY-FOR-CHRISTMAS!! feeling I had when I was six. (I didn’t get the puppy, but I do remember the feeling.) I’m doing something that I am absolutely IN LOVE with!

But then there’s the doubt/fear/certainty that my dream job will fall flat, and I won’t even have the dream any more.

Then that fades, and I can see the potential for me, for new writers, for readers, for students, for moms, for ideas. It’s like looking at a clear night sky at the cottage; the longer you look the more stars you see and the brighter they get!

And then you realize how small and insignificant you are.

How will I know when this baby is breathing on its own?
How will I know if it’s dead?
Oh that it will grow up to be a fine, upstanding citizen…
What if it ends up marrying ‘Snake’ and finds itself a career in hard core porn?

I guess that if that kind of worry had a way of stopping us from acting on our deepest desires, the human race would have died out long ago.

And so, here is my baby – out there for everyone to love/hate/help/kill/watch/enjoy. Time will tell, and I now have no choice but to follow this road I’ve chosen.

It is my greatest hope that I will one day read what I have just written and laugh.

And maybe write about how foolish I was to worry about any of this at all.

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Links of Interest

The Book Writers Network
An initiative for Authors to promote themselves on the Internet, designed specifically for authors, tailor made to provide the modules and services that are unique to writers.

The New Author
Where beginning authors trying to understand the world of writing, publishing, and promoting can learn and share.

The New Writer Magazine
It’s different and it’s aimed at all writers: the short story writer, the novelist, the poet, feature writer, anyone with a serious intent to develop their writing to meet the expectations of today’s editors.

The New Writers
The New Writers is an online group, founded on Facebook, of inspired, inspiring, and aspiring poets, authors, writers, and publishers.

An Invitation for Our Writers
For Romantic Inspiration, Romance Author Promotion, and Romance Novel Reviews that you can post yourself, discover RomanticIdeasOnline.com and get yourself OUT there. Remember, Life Can Be a Honeymoon. Let’s Start NOW!

Fiction eBook
Ernie Lindsey provides book reviews for readers, and information for readers who want to be writers. A terrific site to visit. Regularly!

F.Y.I.

Book Display Stands
Get your books noticed at festivals, signings, and on store shelves with book stands from DisplayStands4You.

Headquarters Directory

Romantic Shorts

READING ROOM
Add a little romance, a little sexy, and a little naughty to your break. Choose your mood and reset your imagination. Our romantic short stories are just enough to get you through the afternoon. And if you need us, we’ll be here for you again tomorrow